1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to the installation of low voltage wire over ceiling joists and other elevated objects typically found, but not limited to, warehouses and factories.
2. Prior Art
Presently, people that install low voltage wire over ceiling joists and other elevated objects, perform that installation by using extension ladders or rolling scaffolding. While the present method accomplishes the task, it is labor extensive and therefore expensive. In most cases two installers are required to set up and move scaffolding and extension ladders as each ceiling joist is passed over with the wire. Using the present method injuries occur from falls, from assembling and disassembling scaffolding and from moving extension ladders. My invention, attached to a pole, allows one man, working at floor level, to install the wire over joists without the danger of injury described above, in a very time effective manner.
Various devices are known in the art for the remote manipulation of wire. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,514,004 is used to grasp wire and push or pull it through crawl spaces. This device cannot be used for installing wire over a series of joists by a person working at floor level. U.S. Pat. No. 4,230,357 manipulates wire in situations when it is not desirable to touch the wire. The device can pick up the wire and move it, but the design of the tool does not allow it to be effective when installing wire over elevated objects. There are devices that look similar to my invention such as U.S. Pat. No. 103,627, that is used to install picture hooks. I believe it will be obvious to the reader that the spur on that device would prevent access of the device between close parallel conduits, pipes or other objects thus severely inhibiting the use of the tool. While the disk could be elevated by using U.S. Pat. No. 3,936,088, the upwardly curving hook is not curved sufficiently to hold the disk at the required angle to allow the disk, with wire attached, to pass over the elevated object without prematurely falling off. The invention that installs cable on the cross arm of a pole, French Pat. No. 2,371,800 requires the open end of a cross arm for installation. Ceiling joists do not have open ends, therefore the device would not be of use in installing wire over ceiling joists. Many rope drops have been invented that could substitute wire for rope. Faulkners' U.S. Pat. No. 3,856,340 requires a length of rope to be wound around a spool. In the time required to wind the wire around the spool, several objects could be passed over using my device. The device could not be used in any case because the free falling spool would create a hazard when used in populated areas such as factories. The descent of the disk used with my wire placing device is at all times controlled by the operator. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,813,122, 4,895,407, 2,700,252, 3,072,429, 3,774,953, require the object to be passed over to fit between the arms of the tools. Elevated objects such as air ducts would require a tool of massive proportions thus rendering it unsuitable for the task that my invention accomplishes. Heysers' invention, U.S. Pat. No. 2,688,510, while effective for placing rope over a tree limb, is not practical for placing wire over a series of objects typically found in factories and warehouses. The head of the invention, on its pipelike element, must pass laterally over the objects. Therefore the length of the tool must be in excess of the diameter of the object, or series of objects in close proximity of each other thereby requiring a tool of such a size as to render it impractical. The size of objects passed over with my invention is only limited by the length of the pole and the angle in which it is elevated. U.S. Pat. No. 4,469,361, is used to retrieve a lost stand of pipe. The hook is manipulated around the pipe or object, the handle is caused to separate from the hook and the hook remains on the object, allowing the operator to pull the object. The rope used does not pass from one side of the object, to be retrieved by the operator, therefore the tool can not be used to install wire over ceiling joists or other elevated objects. U.S. Pat. No. 3,733,097, is a device that attaches a hook to a remote object. While it could be used to place a hook on a ceiling joist, it could not be used to install wire over the ceiling joist.